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April 25, 2008: Whispers Day 3

Dr. Carson Becket (Paul McGillion)

You know what would be awesome? Sleep. Unfortunately, my French bulldog Lulu sees to it that I'm awake by 6:30 a.m. every morning - barking, whining, chewing on my ear and, if I attempt to ignore her, grabbing a corner of my pillow and tugging it out from beneath my head if. So even though it's a late call, sleeping in is only a theoretical possibility for me.Maj. Anne Teldy (Christina Cox) and Sgt. Dusty Mehra (Janina Gavankar)

But I'm not complaining. It only sounds like I'm complaining. In reality, I'm having a terrific (dare I say corking) time on set. Will [Waring - the director] is an affable host who, between fielding my last minute dialogue adjustments and assisting me in locating my oft-misplaced chair, has also found time to direct the episode. It's all coming along very nicely (and spookily) and I'm sure fans will be bothdelighted with and terrified by the final product.

Sgt. Dusty Mehra

I'm able to get this entry in early today thanks to a late start which has us breaking for lunch at 4:30 p.m. today. For our 8:30 p.m. dinner tonight, I've ordered pizza and wings for the cast and crew as a thank you for all of their hard work (shooting Whispers hasn't been easy and they`ve been doing an incredible job). All-dressed, spicy chicken, pepperoni and cheese, veggie, and even a couple of ham and pineapples for the fringe crowd.

Paul McGillion, Director Will Waring and Janina Gavankar

The gang over at SF Signal were kind enough to ask me to participate in their recent Mind Meld feature, an ongoing interview/feature in which a bunch of people are asked to a respond to a single question.

They asked:

Q: Which author, living or otherwise, do you believe deserves more recognition than they currently receive and why?

Premiering the weekend of April 26/27th in US Syndication, the Stargate Atlantis third season episode 'Sunday' and the Stargate SG-1 tenth season episode 'Talion.' Please check your local listings for channel, date and time.

STARGATE ATLANTIS - 'Sunday'

The team tries to relax during a mandatory day off, until an explosion leaves three people dead -- and reveals that one scientist is a walking time bomb.

The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films is a non-profit organization devoted to honoring, recognizing and promoting genre entertainment. The organization was founded in 1972 by film historian Dr. Donald A. Reed. It is currently headed by film enthusiast Robert Holguin. This year’s show will take place on Tuesday, June 24, in Universal City, California.

Katee Sackhoff, Bob Layton, Jackie Chan and Brad Bird are on the podcast this week. Katee discusses her role as Starbuck on Battlestar Galactica, Bob Layton has his take on Iron Man, Jackie Chan discusses his new movie 'Forbidden Kingdom' with Natasha Eloi, and Brad Bird waxes eloquent about Superman.

Josh Friedman is an American screenwriter best known as the writer of the 2005 film adaptation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. Friedman also publishes the blog "I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing". He is now executive producer and writer on The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the sequel to the Terminator movies (excluding T3). In his spare time, Friedman publishes the popular blog, “I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing.” Friedman lives in Los Angeles with his wife and son.

Question: Can you talk a little bit about what you went through in terms of logistics and other things in order to get the show paced up for a second season?

Josh Friedman: Sure, I think what we did is pretty much what’s standard on all shows. It’s an opportunity for the studio and the network and the production team to sit down and sort of talk about the show and kind of look at what we did right, what we did wrong, and kind of how we would keep doing the right things and stop doing the wrong things. We went in and we made a presentation to Kevin Reilly and his team. We kind of have a conversation about the direction we want to go. And in this case we actually, about six weeks ago, the writing team was all brought back on to start working on episodes. So even though we didn’t have the official pickup, we were being paid to start working and generate stuff so that when the pickup came we would be basically, on schedule for a fall debut.

**snippage**

Question: Bear McCreary, who did all the music for last season, is he coming back as well?

Josh Friedman: Absolutely, absolutely, 100%. Bear’s awesome and I think because of the strike I was gone for almost all the post-production period. So I actually ended up spending very little time with Bear spotting things and placing them and James Middleton worked with him a lot, but I really haven’t even had the pleasure, I worked with him on the re-scoring of the pilot, and beyond that I really didn’t get to spend a lot of time working with him. So it’s one of the things I’m excited about. Yes, I love that guy.

Starship Troopers fans rejoice: Johnny Rico is back. With buzz building for Starship Troopers 3: Marauder (coming to DVD in July) we caught up with Casper Van Dien, new recruit Jolene Blalock and writer/director Ed Neumeier at the New York Comic Con to discuss the return of Johnny, satire during wartime, and, of course, big scary bugs.

**snippage**

Q: Jolene, you play a new character, Captain Lola Beck. Was the character a big change for you after Enterprise?

Jolene: It was, because T'Pol was so reserved and didn't really show a lot of emotion. When you lay out your career and the types of roles you want to do, this is right in the meat of what you love, because you're going to have fun. These are the type of movies that are just a blast to do.

Q: Can we expect any new bugs for this outing?

**snippage**

Casper: You'll have to watch and see for that one. And there are still warrior bugs. It pays tribute to the original Starship Troopers.

We know Mar Anderson from guest appearances on Stargate SG-1 and we're grateful that he's taking some time to answer a few career related questions for our German website visitors.

S-P.de: You made a guest appearance as "Bob" on the 100th episode of Stargate SG-1 "Wormhole Extreme". Was being on the 100th episode of this long running tv show special and if yes, in which way?

MA: Working on the 100th episode of Stargate was special, a pleasure and a lot of fun! It is a massive milestone for any show to reach so it is quite an accomplishment. We had done an episode the season before entitled "Point Of No Return". I ran into Willie Garson in Los Angeles months after shooting and he mentioned to me that they might be bringing our characters back for another episode. It just so happened to be in the 100th episode! Pretty cool.

He stars on Battlestar Galactica (Fridays at 10 pm/ET, Sci Fi Channel) as Ensign Sam Anders, a secret member of the indestructible Cylon race. And it turns out Michael Trucco is pretty indestructible in real life, too.

Last December 2, the 37-year-old actor and a buddy were taking an easy Sunday-morning drive on Malibu's Pacific Coast Highway when their Ferrari 360 skidded on a curve, rolled up an embankment, flipped into the air and slammed to the pavement upside down. Trucco, who was in the passenger seat, suffered a broken neck but managed to pull himself out of the car, stand upright and get away from the wreckage.

He was airlifted to UCLA Medical Center, where — after six hours of spinal surgery — doctors pronounced him a freak of nature. "They just shook their heads and said, 'This doesn't make sense,'" recalls Trucco, whose vertebrae damage was likened to Christopher Reeve's. "I was told only one in hundred people can walk away from an accident like that. I easily could have died or ended up a paraplegic. I'm the luckiest guy alive."

**snippage**

Use our Online Video Guide to watch full episodes and clips from of Battlestar Galacitca.